Web Content Writing 101: Doing It Yourself

About Kari DePhillips

Kari DePhillips is the owner of The Content Factory and co-founder of Workationing. She's been featured everywhere from Fast Company to Forbes to NBC News for her management style and digital marketing expertise, and Thrive calls her a "limit‑breaking female founder." See all posts by Kari DePhillips.

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One of the best things you can do to increase website traffic is reevaluate your site’s web content writing.

Having effective web content on your site will convert browsers to buyers, help Internet searchers find what they’re looking for (your products!) and give you a steady stream of fresh content to promote on social media pages (which can help you get backlinks over time). Here are some tips that will take your web content writing to the next level:

1. Objectively evaluate your current content.

Is your copy free of spelling, grammar and punctuation errors? Does it convey your message succinctly and effectively?

Although you may be tempted to go on for 1,500 words about how amazing your products and services are, don’t. People won’t read it, and the excessive text will scare them off. Internet surfers are fickle, and they’re not likely to park themselves in front of your site and read your content for a half hour.

Keep it short, simple and to the point. If you can make your web content writing catchy and clever, even better.

2. Break up big blocks of text.

In general, if your paragraphs are longer than eight lines in Microsoft Word (12 point Arial font), they’re too long. Nobody wants to wade through giant blocks of grey text to get the information they’re looking for, so make the relevant details stand out. A good way to do this is to use bullet points, numbered lists and bold subtitles. The goal here is to make the information jump off of the page, so the reader can easily find it.

3. Create an irresistible call to action.

You don’t want visitors to your site to only read your content — you want them to make a purchase, or contact you for a quote, or whatever’s relevant to your business. In the final paragraph of content, make sure to include some sort of call to action. Tell the readers what you want them to do, don’t just assume they’ll take the next step on their own.

4. Incorporate SEO keywords.

By incorporating SEO keywords into your copy, you’ll help search engines — and the people who use them — find your website. Do some research, find out what keywords people are searching for (and what you can be competitive in) and make yourself a list. Then, weave them into your copy.

There are tons of keyword research tools you can use, but our favorite is SEMrush. In fact, we’e gotten such good results with it that we’ve become an affiliate. Click here for a free week of SEMrush Pro.

Don’t know how to find SEO keywords? It’s easier than you think!

Our keyword research guide will show you everything you need to target your audience and boost your search results.

Pro tip: don’t stuff keywords into your content. People can tell, and it makes you look spammy.

5. Don’t be afraid to use contractions.

This isn’t a college paper — this is website content. No matter what your professors or high school English teachers may have taught you, contractions are A-OK when it comes to web content writing. They make the content more readable, cut down on the total word count and make you seem like a real person (instead of a faceless code monkey or robot).

6. Share your expert knowledge.

You’re in your industry for a reason. Hopefully, because you’re good at what you do. Share your expert tips, tricks and hints in your web content, and people will start to view you as a resource (not just a retailer). Over time, you’ll get backlinks as people share your content — something that’s great for your web PR.

7. Start a blog and become your own SEO article writer.

Starting a blog is one of the best ways to consistently put fresh content on your site, something search engines value. Beyond the search engine angle, you can save a lot of money by doing it yourself — professional SEO article writers may do good work, but they don’t do it for free. Plus, it’ll give you something to link to on your company’s Facebook page.

8. Think of your web content as an employee — and put it to work.

If the information is easy to understand, easy to find and easy (or even fun) to read, your content is going to get backlinks, convert sales and draw more traffic. Web content shouldn’t just sit there and look pretty. It should be working toward the same goal you are.

Like everything else, web content writing gets easier with practice. The more you do it, the more natural it becomes — eventually, you’ll be writing SEO blogs in your sleep. Although you may not see a giant jump in traffic right away as a result of your web content writing efforts, you will see value over time (even if it takes a month or two).

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